#hiroshima castle

[susanoos-wife]

Hiroshima Daihonei - Famous, Sacred and Historical Places (first edition), by Tokuriki Tomikichiro

[redsamuraiii]

Fun Trivia : Did you know that Osaka Castle was black?

It was built by the real Taiko, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, before it was destroyed and reconstructed into a white castle by Tokugawa Ieyasu. After the death of the "dictator" Oda Nobunaga, Hideyoshi constructed impressive castles like Osaka to herald his new position.

Castles that were built during Hideyoshi's reign like Hiroshima, Okayama and Matsumoto are black. Castles built during Tokugawa's reign like Hikone, Himeji and Nagoya are white. So when you see a castle on your next trip to Japan, you can guess who built it. 😉

The differences in color is due to the resources availability at the time, as white plastering were more expensive than black lacquered timber, so it is of no surprise that Tokugawa later used white for his castles as a symbol of wealth and power. 

You can read more from the book, Samurai Castles by Jennifer Mitchelhill which share the history of Japanese castles, from its designs, architectures, layouts, significance and legends, coupled with wonderful photos of the castles by David Green.

[ikana-graveyard]

広島城 4.16.2024

[1512px]

© | Roméo A. (Do not remove credits)

[darklightsworld]

Hiroshima 2024/09/09-13

Day 1-2

Long time no see... again... This was the worst summer ever. As in, officially the hottest ever with three times as many days over 35°C than usual. Somewhere around 55 days... orz Kyoto does know how to welcome me back ^^; So, I was laying low and dying every time I needed to step out of my flat. It turned out that this ground floor (and not wood) apartment does not heat as fast as my previous ones, so I could get through the day without air-con, but barely, so not much productivity until the evening from me, when I turned it on. You might ask why not the other way round? I cannot sleep in the heat (even in winter I turn the heating off for the night), and without sleeping I'm useless, so I use the air-con from evening to morning. This also meant that I was hardly doing anything for sightseeing, some exhibitions here and there, but it was just too hot.

Still, I thought it can't be that I'm not traveling during the holiday (especially since I'm having a holiday the first time in six years...), so I went to Hiroshima for the first time. It was a mistake. I expected lower temperatures in September, but no, around 35°C every day, and it was hellish. No trips in summer ever again. (I'm starting to feel like schools should just power through summer with air-conditioning and save the longer holiday for fall, September-October, when you can actually enjoy it too. Anyway, I took five days for Hiroshima to make it a slow trip, one that I could survive despite the heat - it was difficult anyway.

Day 1

Not living in the countryside is heavenly for transportation. Hiroshima is very close by Shinkansen, so I ticked off some basic sightseeing on the first day already. Like the Atomic Bomb Dome and the park (skipped the museum, I just didn't have the energy in the heat); Shukkeien Garden, a small but gorgeous park; Hiroshima Castle, which is more of an observatory with historical exhibition - like Osaka Castle, but much smaller. It doesn't have air-conditioning though (or too weak), so I had to spend five minutes in front of a high power fan, because I was about to pass out (not exaggerating...). Quite telling that all the people who came out of the castle flocked to the tiny shop selling ice cream - me included ^^; I closed the day in the shopping district afterward.

Day 2

I tried to take it easy, but the morning was hard. I wanted to visit some shrines and the Peace Monument just north of the station on a hill. It turned out to be a hill with tons of shrines, hiking routes, and I only saw a portion of everything there. It was 433 steps uphill in 35°C in a long skirt (pants stick to you too much). The steps were a bit steep in the second half too (not pictured). Every now and then they had some wise things to say (see above) while mentioning how much was left XD At the top there was this monument with a statue - concrete with metal and no shade at the benches anywhere!!! The view was great, but difficult to rest before going back down... I could refresh at the Hiroshima Museum of Art, fortunately. They had a nihonga exhibition, and since I have a new course to teach starting this semester that deals with mostly premodern Japanese visual arts, it was a useful exhibition for me. I closed the day walking around Ujina island, one of the islands near the coast. I love the sea, I love islands, so it was a nice preparation for the main dish of this trip: Miyajima. There were beaches, but it's the wrong side of the tide with every seashell and debris washing out there. It is also sandy, and I don't like sandy beaches. Anyway, the view was nice.

tbc...

[kyndaris]

The Price of Peace

Before the war, Hiroshima was a sizable city known for its castle town were on par with Himeji or Osaka Castle. During the war, it became a focal point of military activity with large depots of military supplies. Not too far away was the location for where the Akatsuki Corps, a special cadet system set up by the Army as the war situation grew more severe. These young men were trained daily in preparation for suicide attacks against the Allied Forces.

Everything changed, however, on 6th August 1945 when the United States of America dropped the 'Little Boy' atomic bomb and killed approximately a hundred thousand people in the blast, and upending thousands more in the intervening years.

With this one mighty blow, the death knell of World War II was rung with the Allied Forces anointed the winners.

But what was the price for this victory?

As the film Oppenheimer opined, perhaps the creation of the atomic bomb had ignited the world into a downward spiral to destruction. Humanity was so beholden with the idea of if they 'could' create such a bomb there was too little consideration on whether we 'should.' War is tribalism at its best, where we paint those like us as the 'good guys' and demonise the opposing side.

We might all be humans struggling to live on this planet we call home but should someone come to disrupt the equilibrium we live in, humans are very quick to lash out and attack those they feel are too 'different.' In societies of old, blame was laid on 'outsiders' for all manners of ills. The witch hunts are one such example.

In any case, the creation of the atomic bomb led to several more weapons of mass destruction being constructed as a means to threaten and deter others despite attempts from the survivors to prevent their proliferation. A macrocosm of a race to have the bigger weapon or to 'protect' one's interest because you see the neighbour across the street has bought a gun.

As an aside, America's gun laws are a mess and if the world ever needs to see what stocking weapons of mass destruction could lead to, look no further than the mass shootings in America that happen almost every day.

It only takes one imbecile (or, in the case of nuclear weapons, a nation of imbeciles) to plunge the world into disrepair.

Anyways, what I wanted to say was that listening to the testimonies and reading the stories of those who lived through the endless days of Hell after the atomic bomb, it became very hard for me to reconcile why anyone would want to keep nuclear weapons on hand. The pain and death it caused. The aftereffects due to radiation. And the shattering effect it had on families as they grappled with their loss.

No dispute, be it over bruised pride or resources, should ever need the use of nuclear weapons for the victory attained would be Pyrrhic at best. Even the Akatsuki Corps members, boys who were trained to give up their lives in service to their nation, could not equate the destruction of HIroshima with 'glorious' war.

This was all laid bare to me at the Atomic Bomb Museum and the Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims.

Now, I'm not sure how telling it is but while Hiroshima had a large number of peace tourists visiting the cenotaph and the Atomic Bomb museum, there hadn't been as many visitors to Nagasaki. Rather, Nagasaki had more local tourists flocking to the region wishing to try out specialty dishes such as champon noodles and castella.

After appreciating the gravity of the events that shaped modern Japan, including the Atomic Bomb Dome, bleachpanda and I enjoyed a very noodle-heavy okonomiyaki at a nearby restaurant before we headed to Hiroshima Castle.

Hiroshima Castle was established by Mori Terumoto in 1589 at the delta of the Otagawa River. In 1600, following the battle of Sekigahara, Terumoto was forced to retreat and Fukushima Masanori from Kiyosu took control of the castle. However, after restoring the castle following the flood of 1619 without permission from the Tokugawa shogunate, Masanori was dismissed. Asano Nagaakira then became lord of Aki and the Asano family continued to hold this position up until the Meiji restoration.

Inside Hiroshima Castle, we climbed, reading about its history from the exhibits until we managed to reach the top and looked out on the city. After seeing the tragedy of the atomic bomb, it was nice to learn some of Hiroshima's early history as a bustling city and its ties to the Tokugawa Shogunate before its abolition.

Despite the cloudy day, Hiroshima glimmered before us int he afternoon light.

Our key tourist sites finished, bleachpanda dragged me to Animate - a weeb store filled with gacha capsules on the ground floor with figurines (including Ichiban Kuji prizes), mang, doujinshi and other merchandise from popular anime available for purchase.

While I picked out some tasteful Detective Conan acrylic stands, bleachpanda ended up buying a Demonslayer shirt that cost more than half of my purchase! Truly, she is a fiend who cannot be stopped. And will then turn around the next moment to blame an innocent, such as myself, for her extravagant spending!

As the day drew to a close, bleachpanda and I ended the day at Sensui, a restaurant at the Hilton. The two of us got the Onomichi set (a place I would have liked to visit because Yakuza 6: The Song of Life had its early story beat set here. And it is where we get the mascot Ono Michio! With his charming hassaku face, steamy Onomichi ramen hat, cute fish pouch and cool boots, vital for any fisherman, and his cool and trendy Ono shirt!) and which cost us approximately 100,000 yen each!

Given half our holiday was over anyways, i thought it a nice touch to splurge a little and treat ourselves. Tomorrow, after all, was another day of transit as we headed further east to Osaka. And while I wouldn't be able to see the sights of Miyajima or Onomichi, I did have one thing I was excited for.

Universal Studios Japan, here we come!

[awidevastdominion]

[chernobog13]

Coming up next on Animal Planet: When Koi Attack!

photo by me